West Virginia folklore
West Virginia has a rich tradition of folklore – including folktales, legends, and superstitions – resulting from the diverse ethnicities, religions, languages, and culture of migrants who moved there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Origins
As the mining and railroad industries in West Virginia grew from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, the demand for workers also increased. West Virginia became a magnet for immigrants of diverse backgrounds. One group that began to flock to the state was natives of Asturias, Spain, a mountainous region in northwestern Spain where many were employed by the zinc and coal mining industries. This principality was already geographically similar to Appalachia, and when two zinc plants opened in Harrison County, Spanish laborers began to flock to the area. A small company town called Spelter was established in 1910, and just 10 years later, over a thousand Spanish immigrants inhabited it. This accounted for approximately two thirds of the state’s net Spanish population.During this time, West Virginia also attracted migrants from Italy, Scandinavia, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Hungary, and the Levant region of the Middle East. A large Polish community established itself in Wheeling, while many Levantine immigrants flocked to more southern areas near Charleston, WV.
In just a few decades, West Virginia became a melting pot for all sorts of ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures. Included in these cultures were superstitions and tales of witchcraft and magic. Although many immigrant families have assimilated into American culture over the several generations that have passed since, West Virginia still maintains a rich culture of folklore and mystery today.
Folktales
Old Raw-Head and Bloody Bones
Many variations of a child-eating creature known as "Rawhead," "Bloody Bones," or a combination of the two have existed in North American folktales for centuries. The earliest known recording of this boogeyman was in 1693 by none other than the English philosopher John Locke. It's believed that the stories originated in Great Britain, but spread to the United States where they became especially popular in the South. Some versions of the legend depict Bloody Bones as a water demon that haunted lakes and rivers. This was likely a means of keeping children away from deep bodies of water. Another version claims that he is an evil spirit attracted by violence and carnage. The Bloody Bones popular in West Virginian folklore, however, is a creature that inhabits the space under the stairs of a home and eats disobedient or misbehaving children. A tale of a child's encounter with Bloody Bones was recorded by Ninevah Jackson Willis. Willis is responsible for the compilation of many myths and superstitions native to Appalachia. This particular tale was used as a bedtime story for children. His account details the story of a young girl whose parents frequently leave her home alone. One night, she became lonely while her parents were gone so she stood beside the stairs and called for someone to come play with her. The girl received a response: a small voice assuring her that it would come soon. Over the course of the night, the girl called for company several more times. Finally, the voice replied that it was coming. Suddenly, a depiction of Rawhead rolled down the stairs, stopping by the girl's feet. Rawhead and the girl then exchange a series of interactions strongly reminiscent of the popular tale Little Red Riding Hood. The girl remarks on what long fingernails and big teeth the creature has. At the mention of its teeth, Rawhead slyly replies that they are "to eat up with." The story then cuts to when the girl's parents arrive back home to find the girl's remains—a pile of bloody bones.Where's My Big Toe?
Known by many names an adaptations, such as "The Hairy Toe" or "The Skinny Toe", "Where's My Big Toe?" is a story that has drifted through American folktales for years. The most modern and popular of these adaptations is simply known as "The Big Toe." It was included in the first book of Alvin Schwartz's highly popular Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, originally published in 1981. In Schwartz's version, a boy finds a toe while digging in his garden. He pulls it out and brings it inside to show his mother, who is quite impressed with its plumpness. She put it in the soup and the family ate it for dinner that evening. As the boy lay in bed that night, he heard a raspy voice repeatedly asking where its toe went. The boy was afraid and hid under his covers, hoping the voice would go away by morning. Rather than disappearing, the voice seemed to come closer and closer. At this point, the teller of the story is to pause, then cry "you've got it!" as they lunge towards the audience. The much older Appalachian version of the story has a fair share of similarities to this adaptation. Rather than a young boy, the person who discovers the toe is an old woman. Instead of taking the toe into the house to eat for dinner, the woman acts in more disregard as she tosses it over the fence and continues going about her gardening. The storylines become almost identical at this point as the woman hears a menacing voice asking for its toe as she is drifting off to sleep. The voice gets closer and closer, then, just like Schwartz's version, the storyteller pauses and scares the audience.Angel of Mercy
The “Angel of Mercy” is a folktale told to show that deceased loved ones watch over and take care of their living descendants.It was a cold winter, the roads were covered in snow over 2 feet deep. One neighbor's wife had died, but the only way to get a coffin for her was to walk through the impassible roads to town and bring one back by yoked oxen. The family had placed their wife’s and mother's corpse in the snow and set out to town with the neighbors to get her a coffin. Once they got the coffin and were heading back towards their houses, it had gotten too cold to maintain their speed. Both the people and the oxen had slowed down so much that they had thought that they were not going to make it back to the house that night. Then a light began to come towards them. A woman held the light and, without speaking, led them back to the house. When they arrived at the house, in the reflection of the glass, someone saw the woman’s face and recognized her as the woman who had passed. Later, the family went back to where the corpse had been laid in the snow. Surely enough, her body was still there, dead as ever.
One Time
In the 19th and 20th century, it was standard to start stories by saying "once upon a time." But if you wanted to get an audience's attention, you started with "one time" as it meant that it was not just published, but it was rather seen by someone's own two eyes. For example:One time there was a mother, old and crazy, who did not want her baby anymore. She decided to take her child behind an old barn, held it by its heels and bashed its brains onto a rock. It is said that if you go out there after midnight, you will hear the poor baby cry, and you can see the indent on the rock where it was murdered.
The story was told this way to get the audience to have the reaction of trying to hear the poor little baby crying, and to give them shivers. These "one time" stories are to cultivate the reader's attention and to have them searching by the end for something to come to life from the story. They are to make the audience believe that the story is not a fiction one written for books, but that it is true, and the tale is being passed down generations.
Legends
The Evil Eye
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the dominant ethnicity of immigrants in West Virginia was Irish, but a few Italians trickled in as well. A popular tale stemming from Italy and passed down through the families of Italian immigrants was the legend of the evil eye. An evil eye is a type of spell or curse that can be cast intentionally or unintentionally, usually by a jealous relative or member of the community. When afflicted with the evil eye, one can suffer from migraines or become otherwise ill. Generally, the only way to cure an evil eye is for the person who cast it to confess and apologize. However, there are rare instances where a third party can provide a successful cure through a series of prayers and rituals, often involving olive oil. Olive oil is not only important to this legend as a potential cure. Another ritual involving olive oil is said to be able to reveal who cast the spell. This is convenient considering that, since evil eyes can be cast through jealous thoughts, the offender may not know they are responsible.One reported story of the occurrence of an evil eye curse in West Virginia is a tale folklorist Ruth Ann Musick records as "The Beautiful Hair." In this story, a girl who has long and beautiful hair is envied by her friend. The friend asked if she could trim the girl's hair, and with persistence after an initial no, she was finally allowed to perform the task. Afterwards, the girl's friend kept the trimmings and she soon began to experience painful headaches. The girl and her family were baffled as no doctor or cure seemed to alleviate her pain. One day, the girl told her mother about the haircut. Upon hearing that the girl's friend had kept the trimmings, her mother suspected that her daughter was afflicted with the evil eye. The next day, the mother paid a visit to the friend's home, where she found a pot of boiling water on the stove containing her daughter's hair. The mother threw out the water and took the hair back from the pot. From that day on, her daughter never experienced a migraine again.
Tales of the Devil
Stories of the devil are popular in West Virginian folklore. Due to the variety of people and cultures in the state, there are many different depictions of the devil in regional legends. Some stories are told with him as a dapper young man, more utilize the classic tail-and-horns image, and others take a different approach all together. It's important to note that the devil sometimes serves a different role in these legends. Traditionally, the devil is known as a tempter and the master of all evil. While this is certainly a relevant narrative in West Virginian folklore, the devil can alternatively be depicted as an omen. This can be seen in the Legend of the White Raven Inn.This story takes place in a small roadhouse near Keyser, WV during the 1950s. It's said that a crowd of about 30 patrons was enjoying their evening drinking and dancing. The party was quite "disorderly" as all in attendance were heavily intoxicated. According to eyewitness accounts, the devil allegedly came through the floor. He flew around the room for several moments, sparks flying as his tail hit one of the walls. Other than that, he said and did nothing, disappearing back through the floor just a few moments later. As the legend goes, every patron began attending church after this experience. They remained believers in God for the rest of their lives.
In another story, a man was deathly sick with typhoid fever. As the illness progressed, he began to shout about terrible things he claimed to see. His primary concern was the black dog that he claimed was under the bed. The neighbors who were taking caring of him attributed this to his delirious state of mind, as the man did not own a dog. However, as he became more persistent, his caretakers finally looked under the bed. To their disbelief, a massive creature resembling a dog was in fact under the bed, taking up its full length. The man screamed that they must remove the dog. His neighbors did everything they could to get rid of the dog, first attempting to lure it out, then by physically attacking it. Nothing they did worked. Eerily enough, the dog not only didn't move, but never even made a sound. Meanwhile, the man continued to scream and writhe in pain. This was distressing to the neighbors, so they decided to step outside for a while. When they came back, the man was dead and the dog was gone.
Another way the devil has been depicted in legends is as an almost ordinary man. In a story native to Wetzel County of northern WV, a girl is confronted by a young man who prompts her to sign a book in her own blood. The girl refused after glancing at the man's feet and seeing that they were cloven hooves, a telltale sign of the devil. In contrast, some legends perceive the devil as completely inhuman such. Such is the case in a tale passed down the generations from Ruth Ann Musick's great grandfather, who, as a teenager, skipped church one Sunday to go riding on his horse. After night fell, he passed through a cemetery, where he was confronted with this version of the devil. He was scared out of his mind, and vowed to never miss church again. This also serves as an example of how the devil can sometimes be depicted as an omen.